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The end of returns – or how technology can match fit and size

by Regina Henkel — August 29, 2016

The idea of True Fit sounds a bit like the google street view project: sending out thousands of cars and getting data from each corner of the world. But instead of streets, True Fit is collecting data from products and consumers. Collaborating with over 10,000 brands, they collect the measurements of each product from each collection and in every size, generating a perfect data background for more precise fitting recommendations. Thanks to their technology they want to help retailers and consumers to improve the accuracy in terms of size and fit. In the USA retailers like Macy's and Nordstrom are among the customers as well as brands such as Levi's and Under Armour. CEO Bill Adler explains what is behind this technology.

Photo: True Fit

True Fit use case for men's denim

You are offering a software solution to match the fits of fashion products with the sizes and measurements of thousands of brands. What exactly is True Fit?

Unlike music, movies, books, etc. the footwear & apparel market is massive – nearly $1.5trillion, and still heavily constrained because it’s difficult to buy in a digital environment. Consumers are slow to convert online because of unsure size and fit. True Fit’s technology unlocks digital growth for retailers who seek personalization services across devices and channels. Our Genome-Technology for footwear and apparel is a unified data platform that brings personalization to consumers in the form of fit recommendations and style curation, allowing them to confidently buy more and return less. This is leading to more revenue. Further, True Fit’s technology serves up deep insights to brands and retailers to optimize marketing, merchandising and even product development.

Photo: True Fit

True Fit use case for men's denim

How are you matching fits and sizes of brands and consumers?

Details matter in fashion and performance apparel and footwear. We’ve amassed an unrivaled visibility of these details with the first-ever Genome platform that maps style and fit attributes from over 10,000 brands and across millions of styles. Each piece of clothing and every shoe in our data set is defined by 100 to 200 detailed attributes, including style characteristics and technical specs. So while most rudimentary size calculators or recommendation engines are essentially using the same basic data and web analytics, True Fit brings an entirely new and compelling data set to the table that allows retailers to deliver higher confidence recommendations, curate entire catalogs of clothing and shoes for consumers, and offer more immersive and personalized experiences. And the retailers and brands all get to leverage it for their benefits.

You worked at Timberland prior to True Fit. What have you found interesting working for a software company like True Fit?

Being from the footwear and apparel industry has been essential in solving a market problem like this.

The challenges and opportunities are unique to this special industry. I got a visceral understanding after spending nearly a decade at Timberland. This gave me a clear view of the struggles from the different perspectives of a retailer, a brand, and the consumer. This, combined with my family background as fourth generation in the apparel industry, allowed me to bring a deep, visceral understanding and empathy for the unique challenges those in the footwear & apparel industry face, as well as the ineffable pride I feel to be part of helping this industry from which I have so much heritage excel into the digital era.

We’ve assembled a phenomenal team and it’s thrilling to work alongside them at the intersection of fashion and technology, where we’re able to apply the industry’s largest set of connected fit and style data to solve the industry’s toughest challenges. True Fit’s platform will drive the future of how consumers shop for apparel and footwear, and that is thrilling.

There are other companies offering help in matching size and body like Shoefitr etc. What makes True Fit unique and why should a retailer come to you and work with you and not with others?

The reason I think we’re the leading platform and chosen by the world’s top retailers for both in-store and online is primarily quantity of rich data, and, how we built a sustainable contributory data platform for industry scale. True Fit is a collaborative industry solution. We came together with the largest retailers and brands years ago to unlock this market for digital consumption, together. We worked together collecting the industry’s key data into our independent data platform, with the participating retailers and brands reaping the benefits of that participation. Indeed, that index of retailers has a distinct competitive advantage now.

That broad collaboration and network effect resulted in a very complete set of data representing the detailed attributes of 10,000+ brands and over 100MM consumer profiles. Connecting the data points at a deep attribute level has resulted in great software solutions for their business. That’s the primary reason True Fit’s platform is so unique – the breadth and depth of the data platform.

Could you give examples and numbers on how True Fit improves the conversion rate for your customers/retailers?

Across the board, True Fit typically sees minimally a five percent overall lift to retailers’ net revenue. Here are a few public examples of our partners’ success:House of Fraser, UK shared that they typically see a 6-8 percent lift in incremental revenue site wide; Kate Spade’s Q3 earnings report confirmed the retailers saw conversion rates double for users who used True Fit. The Leading AB testing agency, Brooks Bell, ran an in-depth AB test for one of our global retailers in partnership with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and determined that True Fit was driving a 5.2 percent incremental revenue lift to the entire site. And Guess and Lord & Taylor (HBC) both saw 200 percent more shoppers sign up for True Fit month-over-month, causing their conversion rate to triple.

Photo: True Fit

True Fit use case for men's denim

Why do brands share data about their products, measurements and sizes with you without working with your product? What's their benefit?

Brands create wonderful product and they want more and more consumers to connect with their products. By sharing their data to the True Fit platform, which thousands of them do, True Fit can turn their data in personalized recommendations that help sell their products more effectively to consumers. Brands that participate in the data platform see increased conversions, reduced returns, reduced returns to vendor and fewer markdowns. They also receive valuable insights in a feedback loop that helps inform increasingly better product creation and merchandising.

Many of our current retail partners saw the benefits of this relationship and actually were first brand data partners with True Fit, including Kate Spade, Guess, Ralph Lauren, Levi’s, 7 for All Mankind, Under Armour, Aldo, Adidas, Clarks, Cole Haan, BCBG, Stuart Weitzman, Top Shop, Top Man, Evans, Kenneth Cole, and Dorothy Perkins, to name a few. Additionally, True Fit was built in partnership with the industry – from retailers to brands to consumers. It is because of this collaboration that we’re able to successfully help their consumers find their true fit in market.

Photo: True Fit

True Fit on mobile

What are you working on right now? Where will we see True Fit in the next few years? Any kind of new projects?

Our platform is growing rapidly and we’re intensely focused on creating better, and more, solutions to help footwear and apparel retailers and brands unlock their growth. We’re particularly focused on expanding our core product to hundreds of retailers, as well as expanding the platform’s ability to enable curation through our Discover engine. Discovery leverages deeper levels of attribution from the Genome to better personalize full catalogues as well as outfitting for consumers.

We’re also very actively bringing all this into the bricks & mortar environments to help retailers and brands activate a next generation digital driven shopping experience in stores. Following our recent $25MM Series B investment announcement, this is something we’re very excited to be doing in partnership with Intel, who is an extraordinary leader among retailers. By partnering with Intel, we will be able to propagate our advice across millions of devices in-store so that consumers can take advantage of our Confidence and Discovery Engines via digital mediums to help drive footwear & apparel shopping. I can also see True Fit incorporating enhanced visualizations and some 3D capabilities into recommendations to enhance the overall user experience, making it fluid yet simple across channels.